Graphics Card: You will need a fast graphics card (one with sufficient 3D power) for the 3D part of this class. If you don't know what kind of graphics card you have, here's how to find out. To find out how well your graphics card performs complete these Web3D Ready HARDWARE tests. If your computer passes all of the HARDWARE tests it's fast enough for this part of the class, otherwise you'll need a new graphics card -- contact your professor for details on how to get one.

Graphics Drivers: If your computer was purchased new since 2000 but seems too slow to keep up with the 3D graphics in this course you may be able to speed it up by updating your "graphics drivers" as described in the "Graphics Card Drivers.html " file located in the FILES area of our 3DVR Yahoo Group.

Next Class: If you'd like to learn more about video games, virtual reality and 3D graphics, and have fun doing it, take MT35801 Video Games and Virtual Reality next semester. Note that this course was originally named "MT35801 Discovering 3D and Virtual Reality " but now has a larger focus on video games than the original course.

FINALS DUE SOON:

See our course home page for details on when the final is due. TO SUBMIT YOUR FINALS ON THAT DAY (WHEN DUE) : To submit, post a message to our group with the subject "FINAL COMPLETE FOR your name here" (where your name here is your actual name). In the body of your message provide a link to each of the final exercises, or provide one link to a main page where I can access all of them. This is the same format and submission process as we used for our MIDTERMS (refer to the MIDTERM SUBMISSION notes for details).

Geocities Users: Running out of Web space or files too large to upload? Read these solutions so that you can submit your Final exercises on time.

Three-dimensional (3D) Graphics, Part III

Real Time 3D (RT3D) and Games

Real Time 3D (RT3D) Graphics 

• Question: What is RT3D? 
• Answer: RT3D occurs when 3D graphics are rendered live, in "real time", with little or no visible delay.
• RT3D examples: Web3DChat.com Portal Worlds and Second Life, and most of today's most popular video games.
• RT3D is used in 3D games, for example, whereas non real time 3D graphics are most often used to create 3D imagery for movies, television, and print. In such cases each frame of the imagery is are not rendered live, in real time, but are instead rendered over a period of time. In a movie that uses 3D characters or scenery (such as Lord of the Rings, for example) a single frame of film can take many hours to render using dozens or even hundreds of computers ("render farms"). Because the rendering takes place over a period of time the such off line (not real time) graphics rendering can produce extremely high quality imagery that may even be indistinguishable from reality (so-called "photo real" graphics). RT3D graphics, by comparison, can not be nearly as high quality because they are rendered in real time. Look at these example graphics created with off line (not real time) graphics: Various image stills  and TotsTV.org videos. Also see MediaGrid.org film rendering animation frames (especially the Sun Maiden commercial) for examples.

Reading [on your own time -- not during this class]: Read the "REAL TIME 3D GRAPHICS" chapters of our "Discovering 3D Graphics" textbook to learn more about what it takes to create 3D graphics in real time.

• Question: What makes RT3D so demanding in terms of the compute power required?
• Answer: See "2.0.0 EXAMPLE: BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS USING 3D GRAPHICS" in our 3D Graphics textbook.
• RT3D demands a high number of frames per section (FPS), ideally at least 20fps (20 frames per second). But even 20fps can produce sluggish and less than desirable experiences. 30fps is what we experience with traditional television in the United States, while film (movies) are slightly slower at 24fps -- but movie and films are viewed in a highly controlled environment in which all the frames have been "pre-rendered" and then assembled into a broadcast: they're NOT real time 3D! With enough hardware acceleration today's fastest computers can actually produce upwards of 60fps when processing 3D content. What's the big deal? Find out:

Reading [15 minutes]: Spend 15 minutes reading the 30 Frames per Second vs. 60 Frames per Second technical overview.  Spend  no more than 5 minutes reading each of the 3 sections of this overview.

• 3D graphics can be rendered (drawn on the screen) in either software or hardware. Software rendering is much slower, but available on all machines, whereas hardware rendering is much faster but not always available. Hardware acceleration is always available on dedicated console devices, and on most of today's new personal computers (but NOT on mobile devices!). In order to enable your computer to use hardware acceleration you must not only have the hardware installed (either a special 3D acceleration chip, or set of chips, or a special add-in board) but you also have to have the "glue" software installed. This "glue" is more commonly known as driver software, and it allows your computer to recognize and use the specialized hardware. Additionally, you'll need to have either the openly available OpenGL or Microsoft's own Direct3D drivers (Direct3D is part of the larger DirectX suite of Application Programming Interfaces) installed, as this allows programs to tap into the hardware. Thankfully, most of today's new computers have this stuff already installed so you don't have to think about it.

Exercise [15 minutes]: Java applets don't typically have access to 3D acceleration hardware, meaning they are rendered (drawn) entirely in software. Because rendering RT3D in software is MUCH slower than using hardware the overall experience is of a lower quality. Play the following Java applet 3D games for examples of how software rendering generally results lower-quality content over the Web: Battle Tank, Web War, Tail Gunner. When you are done with the Java applets play Quake! Quake taps into hardware acceleration and is NOT meant to be played over the Web -- because Quake is downloaded and installed, and because it uses 3D acceleration hardware, it is able to render 3D at a much faster rate and provide high quality content. As a downloaded game with hardware acceleration Quake content is richer and more compelling than most software rendered games played over the Web. To enable high quality 3D games over the Web most 3D plug-ins actually support hardware acceleration (see Wild Tangent and Shockwave from the previous class for examples), although the amount of data that can be transferred live over the Web still pales in comparison to a downloaded game or a game delivered on CD-ROM or DVD. In other words, although the 3D rendering issue can be solved by Web browser plug-ins that support hardware acceleration there is still a problem getting enough high quality content over the network in real time. Emerging technologies such as the Media Grid will soon solve the network problem in the coming years: By 2010 you'll be able to experience full screen high quality content through your Web browser.

Exercise [15 minutes]: Have fun! Visit Web3D Games (Web3DGames.com) to play Web-based 3D games that use plug-ins and Java applets. Notice the difference in performance between applets and plug-ins? If not, the applet probably uses OpenGL or Direct 3D to access the hardware accelerator in your computer (rare, but possible).

Reading [on your own time -- not during this class]: Read Creating RT3D with OpenGL to learn more about the basics of OpenGL. 

Jargon

• Most of the terminology and jargon used in RT3D applies to all other forms of 3D. RT3D is simply a more specialized form of 3D graphics (it's focused on rendering in real time).

Exercise [45 minutes]: Spend 45 minutes skimming or reading the following sections from this CONFIDENTIAL Chapter 3, "Computer 3D Fundamentals" taken from the book Core Web3D:

Chapter 3, "Computer 3D Fundamentals" (a PDF file for your eyes only)

Skip to page 84 of the book (which is page 23 of the PDF file), and focus

on the following sections for this reading:



* Modeling and Rendering [SKIM LIGHTLY in 10 minutes]

* Objects and Scenes [!!READ IN DETAIL!! in 20 minutes]

* Points, Lines, Polygons, and Curves [SKIM LIGHTLY in 10 minutes]

* Scene Management [SKIM LIGHTLY in 5 minutes]

On you own time (not in class) you can visit CoreWeb3D.com for a full table of contents and more details about this book.

Exercise [15 minutes]: Spend 15 minutes reading this RT3D Jargon Cheat Sheet, which is compiled from a variety of the following Glossaries and Guides.

Reading [on your own time -- not during this class]: Want to know what's going on behind the scenes when you're playing or interacting with 3D graphics on your computer? If so, consider reading this tutorial about the 3D graphics pipeline (click NEXT at the bottom of each section to advance to the next section). The 3D graphics pipeline describes the start-to-finish steps that your computer goes through to display 3D graphics on the screen. 

Games

• 3D games are the most common form of RT3D today
• 3D games are primary played on the following 2 platforms:
  • Personal Computers (desktops, laptops, notebooks, etc.)
  • Console devices dedicated to "gaming" (Playstation, Playstation 2, XBOX, Gamecube, etc.)
• 3D games are starting to appear on mobile devices as well, although this is an emerging platform (such as Gameboy Advance, and an emerging class of new and powerful Personal Digital Assistants, aka PDAs, powerful palm devices, cell phones, etc).
• Visit Web3D News (Web3DNews.com) for game news...
• Visit Web3D Games (Web3DGames.com) to play Web-based games...
• The  gaming industry rivals that of the Hollywood box office (theaters) and home video rentals (movie rentals). Gaming is approximately a $30 billion industry, meaning the game software (the games we play) and hardware (game consoles, controllers, etc) generate about $30,000,000,000 every year. And that number is growing! Unlike movies and video, however, games are a lot less expensive to make yet can generate as much or more income per release. 
• The economics of game development and their potential return (revenue) make them a very compelling form of entertainment for investors. Box office blockbuster movies can cost more than $100 million ($100,000,000) to make, and rarely make that much in return, but a blockbuster game can cost a FRACTION of that and make much more in return. However, it's getting harder to compete as more games come to market today, and the quality (and cost) has gone up in the past decade, making it more difficult to recoup the cost of development.
• THEN: In the late 1990s and early 2000s a typical 3D game took a team of 10 to 20 people anywhere from 18 months or more to create, and had budgets that ranged in the low millions (it was not uncommon for 3D games of that era to cost between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000 to create). Yet the best of those titles generated more than $100,000,000 in their lifetime.
• NOW: Today, the typical 3D game is becoming more like a Hollywood movie in terms of the team and money needed to create them. Today's top games are built by a team of 50 to 100 people (or more!) and take anywhere from 2 to 5 years to create. Game development budgets can now START at $15 million, and many cost much more to create. Because of the glut of high quality games in the market it's now very difficult for a game to make more than $100,000,000 in its lifetime, but block-busters can make much more than that.

Example: The James Bond game "007: Golden Eye" was a wild success when it came out many years ago (it's now an "old" game), and made more money than the Golden Eye movie, yet cost a fraction to create as compared to the movie.

Blockbuster game sales: In late 2004 Microsoft's first-day North American sales of the video game Halo 2 totaled $125 million, making it the fastest-selling media product ever in the U.S. How many Hollywood movies make this much on opening weekend, let alone the first day? Not many!

Hollywood studios typically have a 3 pronged approach to entertainment  these days:

1. Create the movie 
2. Create a game (or series of games) based on that movie
3. Release the game and movie rental around the same time (after the movie is out of the theater).

Thus, the revenue stream for a given body of content is maximized across the box-office, rental, and gaming industries to the fullest extent possible. Today games are even starting to impact how well a movie does at the box office: the latest Tomb Raider game, for example, wasn't well received by the gamer community which in turn had a negative impact on the Tomb Raider movie (gamers didn't like the game, and didn't go to the movie as a result). Following is an excerpt from recent headline news:

"Producers of the movie Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life blame the game Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness for the film's poor box-office performance. According to a Reuters report, Paramount Pictures believes that Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life's relatively poor box-office performance ($21.8 million in its first weekend) is due to the reception of Eidos Interactive's Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness game, which was released on the PlayStation 2 and the PC. "The only thing we can attribute that to is that the gamers were not happy with the latest version of the Tomb Raider video game, which is our core audience," Paramount distribution president Wayne Lewellen told the news agency..."

Quake and Doom

• The Quake and Doom line of 3D games is created by ID Software
• Two of many "first person shooter" (aka "shooter") 3D game engines. Quake and Doom blazed the way for other first person shooter multi-user games.
• Some versions of these games (such as Quake Arena) support multi-user (multiplayer) games, allowing you to play over the Internet with friends, family, and foes
• We'll use the third major version of Quake, which is more commonly known as Quake 3 (aka "Quake III"), in this class to explore 3D game engines. On slower computers you will need to use the older Quake II game, for which links are provided below.
• Quake is a stand alone game; it doesn't play over the Web. Visit Web3D Games (Web3DGames.com) to play Web-based games...

Reading [on your own time -- not during this class]: Want to know what goes into building a 3D game engine such as Quake? If so, consider reading this Game Engine Anatomy 101 series of articles (click NEXT at the bottom of each section to advance to the next section). The 3D graphics pipeline describes the start-to-finish steps that your computer goes through to display 3D graphics on the screen

Exercise [on your own time, not during class]: Want to host your own multiplayer game (such as Quake Arena)? First you'll need to know your IP address -- here's how to find out your computer's IP address. Also note that your IP address may change each time you reboot, so you may have to find it anew each time you want to host a game.

Other RT3D Game Demos

Quake 2 is an older version of Quake: the RT3D graphics it offers aren't as "good looking" or sophisticated as more modern games since Quake 2 was created years ago to run on slower computers (which is why it's used in this online class as many personal home computers simply aren't fast enough to play newer RT3D games). If you have a very fast computer, such as one purchased in the last year or so, try one or more of these other RT3D games. The difference in graphics quality is stunning.

• Quake III (Quake 3)

• Unreal Tournament

• Return To Castle Wolfenstein

• Doom 3  -- VERY HIGH QUALITY GRAPHICS IF YOU HAVE A FAST 3D CARD

• Farcry -- VERY HIGH QUALITY GRAPHICS IF YOU HAVE A FAST 3D CARD

• World of Warcraft, Gears of War, Final Fantasy, and Oblivion are just a few other multiplayer games that feature mid- to high-quality graphics.

Want more? To get your hands on reviews and demos of many, many more RT3D games and Web-based games:

• Visit Web3D News (Web3DNews.com) for game news.
• Visit Web3D Games (Web3DGames.com) to play Web-based games

FOR NEXT CLASS

Readings from our online textbook:

Book: Discovering 3D Graphics (click icon at left to open this book) Sections ALL. Read as many of the sections in this book as you are interested in. For the Final, however, you'll have to read "HANDS ON: Web3D GRAPHICS WITH Flux Studio " at the very least.

Next Class: If you'd like to learn more about video games, virtual reality and 3D graphics, and have fun doing it, take MT35801 Video Games and Virtual Reality next semester. Note that this course was originally named "MT35801 Discovering 3D and Virtual Reality " but now has a larger focus on video games than the original course.